EU Is Likely to Begin Talks Soon
On Removing Austrian Sanctions

By

Geoff Winestock and

Konstantin Richter Staff Reporters of The Wall Street Journal

Updated Sept. 11, 2000 12:01 a.m. ET

PARIS -- France is expected to start talks soon on lifting the European Union's diplomatic sanctions against Austria and Joerg Haider's Freedom Party, following the release of an independent report warning that the sanctions risked doing more harm than good.

The report, by a group of three human-rights experts, recommended ending the eight-month-old sanctions on cultural and diplomatic links. They are largely symbolic, but France, current holder of the EU's rotating presidency, is likely to be concerned that a continued...